[meteorite-list] Meteorite Escrow Service

[MexicoDoug]

Hi Abe,

Let me complement Count Guido's post with this:

If your purchase is under $1000, and the option exists to pay with your 
credit card (if you have one) or paypal (find a way to get a paypal 
account if you don't have one), do that.  It replaces the need for an 
escrow service or membership in any organization, since you can always 
get your money back in case of scam and paying for registered mail is 
cheaper than paying an escrow fee.

But, from the sound of your message you are perhaps being contacted by 
persons around the world who have limited english skills.  If that is 
the case you are going from what som e people refer to as the retail 
side of this to the wholesale side.  You will get a better price if you 
know what you are doing that way, but you need to learn more about 
meteorites first to be a judge.  Because the extra money you pay to 
some reasonable dealers honestly, more than covers the risk for you at 
this point.  I am not saying to ignore these guys as an interesting 
piece of material m,ay show up and once you have enough experience 
buying little specimens off eBay and dealers of good repute you m,ay be 
in a position to get some of the cream.  But with meteorites, that 
cream is a very hard fight and if you are a casual collector there are 
better ways to make some money unless you get that curious obsession 
that afflict many of us, for which there is no earthly pill to cure.

Kindest wishes
Doug

-----Original Message-----
From: Guenther <abe.guenther at mnsi.net>
To: meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sun, Nov 13, 2011 1:06 pm
Subject: [meteorite-list] Meteorite Escrow Service


I don't post a lot but as soon as I do, I get solicitations from people
trying to sell me meteorites. So I am assuming it's because of 
loiterers in
the forum. From the names I can tell that they are not from the list. I 
can
only assume that they are either normal people who have a meteorite they
would like to sell for some quick cash or it's a scam. If it was the 
former
rather than the latter I would imagine that there could be some pretty 
good
deals out there but I would never want to risk it. If someone actually 
had a
meteorite to sell but had no eBay rating, I understand their motivation 
to
loiter in a forum even though I don't like it. I am sure that there are 
many
honest people who have meteorites they would like to sell but the risk 
is
too high to get scammed.

Is there a trustworthy escrow service in the industry? If someone 
genuinely
had a nice stone to sell, whether they contacted me through my forum 
posts
or otherwise, I could direct them to an escrow. An escrow service would 
help
unknown sellers get their meteorites into the hands of collectors 
without
having to build a name for themselves first or have to go to a meteorite
convention to sell them. There are many knowledgeable meteorite hunters 
and
collectors in the forum who could quite easily operate an escrow service
that people like me would trust.

Thanks,

Abe Guenther



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